U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Water Power Program

U.S. Air Force Leads the Nation in Green Power Purchases

April 27, 2005

The members of the organization buying the most green power in the
United States often wear green themselves—camouflage green, that
is. In 2004, the largest U.S. buyer of green power was the U.S. Air
Force, which bought more than 321,000 megawatt-hours of renewable
energy, with bases in California, Texas, New Mexico, Washington, and
North and South Dakota leading the way. The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) list of the top 25 buyers of green power
participating in its Green Power Partnership, released on April 19th, also
includes the U.S. Navy, the EPA, DOE, the U.S. General Services
Administration, and the World Bank. The top companies on the list
include Johnson & Johnson, Whole Foods Market, and WhiteWave Foods.
Together, the top 25 EPA Green Power Partners are buying more than
1.6 million megawatt-hours of renewable power each year. See the
U.S. Air Force press release, the EPA press release,
and the EPA's top 25 list.

The Air Force's green power purchases are hardly a fluke, in fact, a
report released in March by the Department of Defense (DoD) concluded
that green power purchases can provide its largest source of renewable
energy, although the DoD prefers the energy security benefits of
on-site production of renewable energy. The study found the potential
for 70 average megawatts of wind power at 109 DoD facilities as well
as three or four possible sites for geothermal power plants, six to
eight possible sites for geothermal heating systems, and 430 locations
where some form of solar energy use is practical. See the "DoD
Renewable Energy Assessment" (PDF 168 KB) and for
background information, see the DoD Renewables Assessment Web site. Download Acrobat Reader.